Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 12, 1994 TAG: 9411120061
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: M. J. DOUGHERTY
DATELINE: FORT CHISWELL LENGTH: Medium
running back Norman Perkins to tight end Robbie Stafford.
That play allowed the Green Wave to turn back Fort Chiswell 26-21 in a Mountain Empire District high school football game.
The victory by Narrows (7-3 overall, 3-1 district) caused the Mountain Empire to finish in a three-way tie. The Green Wave, Fort Chiswell and Bland County all ended deadlocked.
Narrows and Bland County will advance to the Divsion 1 Region C playoffs - one as the district winner, the other as a wildcard. But which team represents be seeded as the MED champ will not be known until after today's games in the Black Diamond District in far Southwest Virginia.
The Pioneers (5-5, 3-1) season ended with the loss. They didn't have enough Virginia High School League rating points to win the tie-breaker with Narrows and Bland County, nor did they have enough points to earn a wildcard spot for the Division 2 Region C playoffs.
The fateful play came as the Green Wave faced fourth-and-9 at its own 35. It was supposed to be a fleaflicker. But when running back Brandon Hollie tried to throw the ball back to quarterback Bryan Pruett, it went to Perkins instead.
"I got in the way," explained Perkins. "I caught the ball, just looked for green and just slung it."
The green Perkins spotted belonged to Stafford, who was wide open deep inside Fort Chiswell territory.
"I just ran my route and nobody covered me," said Stafford. "I just stopped and the ball fell right in my hands."
After catching the pass, Stafford broke a couple of tackles and cut to the left sideline en route to the touchdown.
The Pioneers had one possession after the game-winning score. But linebacker Scott Vaught saw that ended after just two plays.
"It was a fumbled snap and one of their offensive lineman kicked it over to me and I fell on it," said Vaught about his second - and most important - fumble recovery of the game.
The late touchdown capped a comeback by the Green Wave that saw them recover from first-quarter deficits of 14-0 and 21-6.
"We scored 21 points in the first quarter," said Fort Chiswell coach Larry Neely. "Then our defense wouldn't let the offense back on the field. They [Narrows] just kept pecking at us. And we knew that was what we going to do."
Pass plays of a more conventional nature provided the scoring as the Green Wave rallied.
Pruett hit Hollie on a seven-yard pass play to put Narrows on the scoreboard late in the first quarter.
Late in the first haLf, Hollie found Stafford for a 27-yard scoring strike. A two-point conversion run by Gary Lowery cut the Pioneers lead to 21-14 at intermission.
And in the first minute of the fourth quarter, Hollie and Pruett hooked up again, this time from seven yards out, to bring Narrows to within 21-20.
"Wve been throwing the ball all year," said Pruett. "We've tried to spread it around. We've got a lot of good running backs. And with the backs running well, that opens up the passing game and makes it easy."
Until the fateful fleaflicker, nothing had been easy for Narrows. Four of the Green Wave's first six possessions ended inside Fort Chiswell territory without points, either on downs or turnovers. Three of them were inside the 30, two inside the 20 and one inside the 5.
"It seemed like we were always one block away so many times," said Narrows coach Don Lowe.
Then things somehow fell into place for the Green Wave.
`I've been saying since after the Bland [County] game that we haven't gotten a break all year," said Lowe. "We just got a huge one tonight.
Fort Chiswell wore us out. They gave us fits. They outplayed us. But we'll take it."
\ see microfilm for box score
by CNB